Day 4
After our very relaxing day, we both slept in and barely made it to breakfast by 11:00am. Then we headed off to Epcot to see the Land, Sea, and all the rest. The first order of the day was to get our Fast Passes for the new Soarin’ ride, so we made a bee-line right there…via Honey I Shrunk the Audience and Journey into Imagination with Figment. When we got our Fast Passes, they were for between 5:00 and 6:00pm (it was about noon), but they would be much better than the regular wait time, which was almost 90 minutes! Next we took the Living with the Land boat tour of a variety of habitat simulations (very good) and of Disney’s research facilities into new growing methods (such as airoponics and tomato or watermelon trees, all quite cool to look at) that will improve output or reduce input to crops, all while reducing pesticide and fertilizer use.
The next stop on our adventure was the Seas. Here, we saw The Seas with Nemo and Friends, which gave us a look at some beautiful undersea habitats with ongoing commentary and jokes from some of the Finding Nemo characters, projected into the aquariums so they looked like they were really there! We then checked out the aquarium viewing areas and educational spaces (which are also fun and feature brilliantly-colored fish). Then we saw perhaps the coolest show in Epcot, Turtle Talk with Crush, from Finding Nemo. This was Crush on screen interacting with audience-members (mainly the kids) by talking and pointing as if he were really a talking turtle chatting it up with all the humans in the human tank. This was very fun, funny, and impressively convincing.
After these attractions, the adventure level started rising. We rode the Test Track car proving ground simulator, which was intense, very exciting, and exhilarating as we flew around turns and past obstacles. Then we took a walk over to Soarin’ and had a simulated hang glider ride over some beautiful sights in California. In the line, we chatted with a family and two cast members, who generously gave us their expired Fast Passes at the end of the ride.
We spent the next few hours exploring the countries in the International Pavilion. They were all crafted with amazing detail. In the middle, we looked up just in time to see a space shuttle launch from Cape Canaveral. When we got to Mexico, we were very hungry and had the best nachos and margarita ever (slightly helped by our hunger, but they were very good). We also went on El Grand Fiesta hosted by the Three Caballeros, giving us a nice, relaxing, introduction to Mexico, so relaxing, in fact, that Andrew was nearly asleep by the end of it. The Norwegian Maelstrom ride was exciting, though the best part was in line when Andrew had Jess nearly convinced that Norwegian was a made-up word (we don’t know what the real word would be, Norwayan or Dutch maybe?). After unsuccessfully trying to get dinner reservations at the San Angel Inn, we settled for dinner at the hotel and some relaxing time by the pool before bed.
